Best wishes
by pike713
Summary: Fox Mccloud comes to bring Krystal dire news while go on his next, and possibly last, great adventure...


Among the icy trees, a small ship came to land, followed by a drifting blanket of yellow autumn leaves. The plane's landing gear made contact with the icy forest floor, and out of it's cockpit leaped a quite grim-faced young fellow wearing a green flight suit under a heavy coat. His metallic boots planted firmly and determinedly into the coarse, green grass as he set out from his chosen landing zone.

"Always hated the cold." He muttered to no one in particular as the icy winds made him shiver.

After about ten minutes of walking and grumbling, he passed through a gap in the tree line to find himself confronted with a wide open plain that stretched upwards into a tall mountain range. Now, envying his prior position in the forest, he was exposed directly to the harsh winds.

As the frosty gale tugged at his fur, he held a shielding hand over his eyes, all the while scanning the vast expanse before him. All at once, his grim expression was shattered and replaced by a tidal wave of emotions as he heard a joyous voice call out to him.

"Fox!"

In his eyes, one could see fear, relief, and dread mixing into some convoluted incarnate of anxiety. It lasted for but a moment.

He forced from his eyes the torment he felt inside and put on a brave face as he turned to meet his companion. And behold; there stood one who had looks to match, if not surpass, the exquisite quality of the lovely melody through which she communicated. Her smile shone like beams of sunlight to relieve the cold as she raced forward to her oldest friend.

After a moment, she seemed to realize that something was amiss with the ace she had long served with. For he did not move but a few feet towards her outstretched arms when, on any other occasion, he would have raced to her and locked in that loving embrace that they both so enjoyed. A worried look came into the girls eyes as she jogged up beside Fox.

"Fox?" she asked worriedly, "what's wrong?" the vulpine sighed heavily and looked up at her with weary eyes.

"Hello, Krystal." He vocalized for that first time that day.

"Fox, what's the matter?" inquired Krystal, placing a hand on his right shoulder. She sensed brief indecision flash though his head followed by a firm negative answer.

"Nothing's the matter. Just a bit tired is all." Fox said, forcing a smile at the blue furred vixen. Krystal, however, was not fooled. But she also realized that he was not likely to budge. Not yet anyways. So she let up for the time being.

"What, after all you've been through, one small border skirmish was enough to put you on a week's leave? that's not the great Fox Mccloud I know and love! Or are you just getting too old for this job?"

"Hey," said fox, defensively, "I had to go through the whole second half of that battle with no left wing because that battleship got in one lucky shot. It's not _my_ fault those last four guys all came at me at once."

This earned him a small giggle from Krystal. "Come on then, let's get you inside."

* * *

><p>Nearby, about 200 yards from them in fact, cunningly placed into the sharp slope of an outlying hill, the entrance to a hidden structure was buried deep underneath the rapidly accumulating snow. Once one stepped inside, they had the somewhat comforting and also terrifying knowledge that 500 thousand tons of dirt and stone concealed them from the outside world. At this time, the long, spacious corridors were vacant and dark, as were the many various rooms that branched from them.<p>

Within the luxurious hideout, there was enough room for twenty people to comfortably bunk, yet the place's sole inhabitant resided in only one of it's 5 massive bedrooms. Also a prime contributor to the expansiveness of the base, were the two common rooms with adjoining dining halls that could easily seat 100 persons each if need be. Needless to say, It was more than enough for the single blue vixen residing therewithin.

All of a sudden, a draft of cold air rushing in caused the base's heating system to power on for a moment, until the temperature had equalized. The source of the intrusion was at the main entryway, a short elevator down into the earth. With this gust of undesired air, there stepped two foxes into the room. One, being the compound's only resident for the past 3 months, led a quite relieved Fox Mccloud to a bedroom where he deposited his backpack before being escorted back down the hallway to the nearer of the two great common rooms and seated in a comfortable sofa before a large television which was promptly switched on and aligned to a news network while Krystal went to get them both something to eat from the kitchen attached to the neighboring dining hall.

When she was gone, Fox allowed his head to fall back, letting out a tired, almost defeated sounding sigh. Something was most certainly wrong with him, whatever he may have told Krystal. that much was plainly obvious. Even from the other room, the vixen was carefully monitoring his thought waves, trying to gain some insight into the problem. But to no avail. He was being careful to hide whatever it was that was bothering him.

She soon decided that it was of no use and reasolved to try a different approach. So, picking up the platters of food, Krystal returned to the common room, finding Fox exactly how she had left him. Concern for his lack of energy flared inside the vixen; on any normal occasion, he would have something witty to say to her upon her return. But not so this time. She shook it off; perhaps he really was just tired. But that thought fooled neither of them.

"Here," she said, offering Fox a plate of rations. "maybe this will get lighten your mood a little." when he took the food, she proceeded to occupy the space next to him.

"Thanks." was his only reply as he picked up his fork and began devouring the meal. Obviously, if Krystal had indeed been hoping a good portion of steak would in the slightest rejuvenate the ace, she was to be terribly disappointed. but now she was sure there was something more to his fatigue than a mere border skirmish.

"Someone was hungry." commented Krystal as Fox set down his empty tray of food.

"I haven't eaten since yesterday morning." He told her, recalling the quick dinner that preceded the assault. "And a sorry meal that one was."

When Krystal finally finished her portion, she stacked her tray on top of Fox's and put her feet up on the couch, laying back onto his shoulder. She heard his thought patterns change drastically and felt the muscles in his arm stiffen slightly at her touch, but he did not move away.

"You sure you're alright?" She asked gently. Fox sighed in exhaustion, again having a brief flare of indecision.

"I'm fine, just a little worn out." He insisted, yawning as if on cue.

Still not believing him in the slightest, Krystal simply responded "If you say so." and let the silence drag on, wondering what possibly could be worrying Fox that he did not deem fit to confide in her. She was sure that he had his reasons, but it bothered her all the same. She was just about to open her mouth to have another go when a soft, warm object came to rest on her head.

Mildly amused and knowing exactly what she'd see, Krystal cast her gaze upwards and saw a pair of light brown ears that she knew belonged to her vulpine companion. Letting out a soft chuckle, she turned out the lights by use of the remote conveniently placed on the table next to her and closed her eyes, matching Fox's breathing until she too fell into a deep and comfortable sleep.

* * *

><p><em>"Haha; and they said these guys were good. This is a piece of cake!" Came the all too familiar voice of Falco Lombardi over the intercom.<em>

_"Don't get cocky, Falco. It's not time to celebrate yet." Fox responded, easily falling in behind another fighter and pumping it full of laser fire. "Anything can still go wrong."_

_Falco let out a disbelieving snort. "Like what? This is the most by-the-book skirmish run I can remember. These guys are too easy." As he spoke, he scattered a rather large formation of them with a burst of cannon fire._

_"I noticed," Fox conceded. "that's what worries me." For despite Peppy's cautioning that this skirmish was going to be up against some of Venom's best and brightest, it had indeed been one of the easiest confrontations he'd ever participated in. Even the whining voice of Slippy had been less frequent on the comm channel._

_"Feh; you're over thinking it Fox. We're gonna be done with this in no time." But as he spoke, an energy reading was picked up just outside the combat zone and a massive capitol ship came out of the gateway. To compliment the gargantuan vessel, two smaller battleships with fighter __escorts of a few dozen fighters each entered the battle zone from just out of radar range._

_"Whoooooaaa!" Came Slippy's terrified shriek._

_"You were saying, Falco?" Fox asked. "Falco?" He tried again. "Hey; Falco, do you copy?.. Slippy?.. Peppy?" there was no response from the communicator. He cursed to himself as he turned his arwing around, trying to get into close enough range that he'd be able to get a signal through through the jamming._

_As he came closer to the Great Fox, he was able to pick up small phrases from his squadron:_

_"...fight... turn... ship. We... lea... soon as... on..." Came Peppy's voice through the static. It was answered shortly thereafter by Falco: "Copy that... man... our..." The comm channel was cut short as a cannon from the large battleship blew Fox's left wing to pieces._

_Instantly, his focus was off of the garbled transmission and on the squadron of fighters bearing down on him from behind. Fox switched power back to his forward laser cannons so that he could tear through the heavy fighters' heavy shields, but five or more tricky maneuvers and far too many close calls later, Fox fell back into his original flight path with the same four pilots still on his tail. He reopened his communicator._

_"I could use a little help over here, does anyone copy?" There was no answer. "Falco, Slippy, can anyone hear me?" Static. Fox cursed to himself again and pulled sharply to his right in a descent towards the planet's atmosphere._


End file.
